Eva Colas (born 21 October 1996) is a French model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Corsica 2017 and Miss Universe France 2018. As Miss Corsica, Colas competed at

Miss France 2018 Miss France 2018 was the 88th edition of the Miss France pageant, held on 16 December 2017 at the M.A.CH 36 in Châteauroux, Centre-Val de Loire. Miss France 2017 Alicia Aylies of French Guiana crowned her successor Maëva Coucke of Nord-Pas-d ...

, where she placed as the first runner-up. Following the competition, Colas was appointed Miss Universe France 2018, and represented France at

Miss Universe 2018 Miss Universe 2018 was the 67th Miss Universe pageant, held at the IMPACT Arena, Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi Province, Thailand on December 17, 2018. At the end of the event, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of South Africa crowned Catriona Gray of ...

Early life and education

Colas was born on 21 October 1996 in

Bastia Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-hi ...

on the island of Corsica. Growing up, Colas was an athletic child, and competed in equestrianism for 13 years. Colas attended Lycée Jeanne d'Arc in Bastia, graduating with her ''

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

'' with honors in 2014. After completing her secondary education, Colas relocated to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

to enroll in

Paris Dauphine University Paris Dauphine University - PSL (french: Université Paris-Dauphine, also known as Paris Dauphine - PSL or Dauphine - PSL) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 universities formed by the division of the ancie ...

, studying a bachelor's degree program in

wealth management Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high ...

Pageantry

Miss Corsica 2017

Colas began her pageantry career in 2017, later being selected as a contestant for the Miss Corsica 2017 pageant. The competition was later held on 8 September 2017 in Porticcio, where Colas was ultimately crowned the winner. As Miss Corsica, Colas earned the right to represent the region at

. Miss France was held on 16 December 2017 in

Châteauroux Châteauroux (; ; oc, Chasteurós) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate Ch ...

. Colas competed in the finals, where she advanced to the top fifteen and later the top five. After reaching the top five, Colas was announced as the first runner-up behind winner Maëva Coucke. In the run-up to the competition, Colas also scored the highest on the General Culture Exam, a formal examination administered to the contestants covering topics such as

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

current events News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events ...

, and

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ...

, having received a score of 18/20.

Miss Universe France 2018

In September 2018, Colas was announced to have been appointed Miss Universe France 2018 by

Sylvie Tellier Sylvie Tellier (born 28 May 1978) is a French television personality, businesswoman, and former beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss France 2002. Previously, Tellier had been crowned Miss Lyon 2001, becoming the seventh woman from Rh� ...

and the Miss France Committee, receiving the right to represent the country at the

competition. The choice was made as Coucke would be unable to compete, due to date conflicts with both Miss World 2018, where she was competing, and

Miss France 2019 Miss France 2019 was the 89th edition of the Miss France pageant, held on 15 December 2018 at the Zénith de Lille in Lille. The competition was hosted by Jean-Pierre Foucault, Sylvie Tellier, and Miss France 2018 Maëva Coucke, while singer ...

, where she would be crowning her successor. This made Colas the first Corsican to represent France at Miss Universe. Miss Universe was held on 17 December 2018 in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...

, but Colas ultimately was not selected for the Top 20. In January 2023, a clip of Colas introducing herself onstage at the preliminary competition for Miss Universe went viral on social media platforms such as

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, with social media users comparing Cola's shout of "France!" to assorted animal vocalizations. Following the attention the clip received, Colas was impersonated by American actress and comedian

Aubrey Plaza Aubrey Christina Plaza (born June 26, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She began her career performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. She starred as April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom '' P ...

in an episode of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serve ...

'', during a skit which parodied the clip.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colas, Eva 1996 births Corsican female models French beauty pageant winners Living people Miss Universe 2018 contestants Paris Dauphine University alumni People from Bastia